aka stampersplus … more than just stamping

Autumn Birdays

Just a quick post (not really) … I am heading to my sister-in-laws place for her birthday tonight and I knew what I wanted to make but just did not have the time during this week. (I actually made three of these. One for Corinna, one for Brenda as it is her birthday too but she will get hers on Sunday, and one for myself for keepsake … hehee).

There are two techniques in this photo which I will explain below.

The technique on the bird is called gradation using markers and daubers. I started off using crushed curry for the body, and then using my dauber added dusty durango on the neck and the tail, blending the crushed curry in to avoid harsh lines. The head was blended with teal and then stamped on whisper white. I outlined certain areas with a black marker to give it some depth. The pheasant was then trimmed on popped dot with a dimension.

The technique (below) in the back drop is also called gradation using a brayer. I started off with punching a 1 3/4″ circle punch on a post-it note (you want the sticky part). Place the post-it note onto the whisper white. This represents the moon.

There are three colors to this gradation look (crushed curry, more mustard, and dusty durango … lightest to darkest).

Starting with your lightest color (crushed curry), I brayered it onto a whisper white, starting at the top and brayering to the bottom without reinking. Once you get to the bottom of the card, your ink should be very light. You can repeat this part to get the desired look. (don’t remove the moon … keep it on until you have finished all three colors).

For the next layer it was brayered with more mustard, again working towards the bottom without reinking but this time off set the brayering so that the lines are not on top of each other, they are more overlapping each other. You want to give it a gradation look.

The last color was brayered with dusty durango. Again, starting from the top and working my way down, off setting the brayering.

I then remove the post-it note, and sponged more mustard and dusty durango so that my moon was not so bright. I inked the Inspired by Nature with chocolate chip brown and stamped it onto the brayered image.

Here is the side view:

I chose these colors because we are coming closer to fall. I finished off the card by punching out leaves and sponging the sides with dusty durango. Added the ribbon on the side.

Okay, here is the recipe for you!

This card is called a Step Card.

5 1/2 x 8 1/2 more mustard cardstock.

Score on the 5 1/2 side at 2″.

Score on the 8 1/2 side at 2 1/4, 4 1/4, 5 1/2, 6 1/2 and 7 1/4 upto the 2″ line. Do not score all the way down.

As this is a very detailed card, I only make these kinds of cards for those who really enjoy the value and time that was put into the card. I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for visiting my site. If you have any questions, please email me.